Fountain of Youth
by White N Nerdy
Summary: Ben, Abigail, and Riley seem to have the worst luck when it comes to their treasure hunting adventures, and their latest escapade is no exception.  But Ben never imagined that dealing with a child sized Riley would be so difficult...
1. The Mission

**Fountain of Youth**

_Rated K+ for the occasional naughty word or two and adventure related violence._

**Foreword**

Took long enough, but I told you guys I'd be back :)

I don't think anyone's done this yet in the National Treasure fandom, but I've definitely read things like it in other places whilst browsing aimlessly. I was inspired by those and the fact that I was literally forced (due to utter boredom) to watch "17 Again" on a looong airplane flight last summer. As I recall it had Star Wars references and Thomas Lennon in it, so at least I was entertained somewhat. Anyway, crappy movies aside, I decided I wanted to write this, originally for an anthology of kid stories I was writing and have been writing since..."Cubicles." Or sometime around then. I don't remember.

See, the problem is when I start so many little things I tend to never getting around to really finishing anything, though the little things are waaay easier to finish than a multi chapter story (I am still sporadically working on a few of those). So if people are interested maybe I'll start posting the series of one shots next and then see where I get with the multi chapter fic afterwards. Sometimes I just need to know people are willing to read so I can force myself to finish stuff.

Anywho, read away and enjoy! Thanks much :)

**Chapter I: The Mission**

_2008_

"Now Ben—I don't want to sound like a broken record or anything, because I know you never listen to me when I say it every other time we do something crazy and or dangerous and or stupid, but I mean it this time when I say that I really, really, _really _don't think this is a good idea."

Riley Poole heard the older man groan, but Benjamin Franklin Gates did not even turn around to address his young friend directly when he said curtly, "well, you could always wait for us outside of the scary cave. By yourself. Where those crazy zealots are probably waiting to attack us. _Again_."

Riley paled as he recalled just how lucky they were to have gotten out of that last scuffle unharmed. Their rented SUV with the Florida plates on the other hand had not been so fortunate as it was reduced to a smoldering wreckage. And now that night was beginning to fall, he would be even more vulnerable to attack if he waited alone outside.

"Uh, no thanks," he finally said with an audible gulp. "I-I'll just stay with you guys."

"I thought you would."

They managed to walk single file through the tight rocky crevice of a cave on the Atlanta coast in silence for another few minutes before Riley's voice echoed around them once again.

"Hey, guys?"

Dr. Abigail Chase exhaled loudly from her position in the lead. Though she didn't say anything, it was clear that she too was starting to get very frustrated with the young man.

"_What_, Riley," Ben sighed.

"Do you really think those crazy cult dudes are still following us?"

"Most likely."

"Oh," Riley muttered. Peaceful silence lasted barely a half a minute this time. "So then aren't you worried about—"

Ben spun around to face his friend so quickly that Riley took a step back in surprise. "No," the older man said firmly. "I am not worried about the backwards religious nuts who are under the delusion that we are somehow tainting their holy land just by being here. I intend to find the supposed Fountain, document it, and get back home as soon as possible to catch up on the much needed sleep that I've been deprived of since we started this inane trip. And the more you interrupt and annoy us, the longer this whole thing is going to take. Got it?"

Riley's eyes widened at Ben's uncharacteristically harsh words and then narrowed defensively. "Oh," he said after a moment in a low voice. "Well I'm sorry you find me so _annoying_."

"Riley..." Ben closed his eyes and exhaled, wishing the aforesaid words had never even left his mouth. "You know I don't think you're—"

"Nope it's okay, I get it," Riley interrupted venomously. "I'll just stay quietly on the sidelines while you make _another _discovery and become famous. _Again_. After all, I'm just the lowly _sidekick_. Nobody ever wants to hear _my_ opinion on _anything_..."

Abigail watched the two infuriated men stare each other down, wondering how things had gotten this tense so quickly. She half expected them to start laughing any second now, because really just the notion of them looking this close to an all out brawl was ridiculous. But neither of them even cracked a smile and Ben didn't unclench his white knuckled fists until she finally intervened by grabbing his arm.

"I know this has been a rough trip," she said as firmly as possible without actually yelling to get their attention out of fear that that would somehow set them both off. "We're all a little..._high strung_, and the last thing we need is to start letting it get to us. Now just shake hands or something and make up so we can keep going."

The tension was thick in the air for another minute before Ben finally sighed and complied with a tired-albeit very forced-smile.

"She's right, Riley," he said. "The sooner we get along and get this over with the better. I'm..._very_ sorry I snapped at you."

He extended his hand in a friendly gesture and Riley turned his narrowed glare towards it. He looked back up at Ben with an equally forced smile and raised his hand, but didn't take Ben's with it. Instead he held his fist out and said stiffly, "you're absolutely right, Ben. Abigail. How very immature and selfish of me to worry about our safety."

Ben, his hand still held out in front of Riley's fist, blinked at the younger man who raised an eyebrow suggestively at him. Ben finally relented a moment later with a roll of his eyes before making his own fist. He forced his fist to lightly pound against Riley's, trying to ignore the smug look of victory in the younger man's bright blue eyes.

"There," he said as he lowered his hand. "Happy now?"

"Oh yes, very much so," Riley said pleasantly. "Thank you for asking."

Ben actually chuckled and clapped his young friend on the back. "You know, Riley, you really can be annoyingly immature..."

Abigail gasped. "_Ben_!"

"...But I honestly couldn't imagine doing the things we do without you," he continued regardless of her interruption. "You're like the obnoxious but loveable little brother that I never had."

Riley beamed at the strange compliment, and then tried to shrug it off despite the sheepish grin he had on his face. "Well I'm glad my childish antics are keeping you sane. And here I thought I was weird for having older friends."

Ben laughed and grabbed Riley's shoulders in a one armed man hug. "You are weird, Riley. And don't ever call me old, short stuff."

"Hey I can't help that I'm vertically challenged anymore than you can help that you're going senile," he smirked at Ben, who grinned back before releasing Riley so they could continue their way into the darkness.

"But, ah, Ben," Riley started hesitantly after a few steps. "You know I wasn't joking before, right? About what a bad idea this whole scary cave wandering thing we have going on is..."

"Don't even start," Ben groaned. He took a few long strides ahead so he was again walking with Abigail while Riley trailed behind.

"_Bennn_," the young man whined.

"So, Abigail," Ben said pointedly to his girlfriend. He pointed to the handheld GPS she was wielding. "How much further?"

"Hopefully not too far," Abigail answered. "But the paths branch off, and some go deeper underground. It's difficult to tell if we're going the right way, since the original map was destroyed..."

Riley drowned out her boring answer with a frustrated sigh. Despite Ben's belief that everything would turn out fine like always, Riley just couldn't shake that horrible foreboding feeling, especially when he could no longer see the starry night sky through the cave's entranceway behind them. The further they went, the more corridors they came across that seemingly led nowhere. But Abigail claimed she knew where she was going, and Riley didn't want to press the matter any further than that. The sooner they were in and out of the murky space the better.

Riley sluggishly followed the pale glow of Ben and Abigail's flashlights and barely listened to what they were saying about the historically significant discovery that was going to be made when they finally reached the supposed Fountain of Youth, and how excited they were to have gotten this far already. Riley could care less. As usual, their adventure had already gotten them almost killed once, and by Riley's calculations it was only a matter of time before something happened to them again.

The young man was so deep in his own ironically morbid thoughts that he didn't sense a figure coming up behind him from the shadows until said figure had wrapped one thick arm around Riley's chest while the other immediately came up to press a dank cloth against his mouth and muffle his short cry of alarm. He struggled, but the man who grabbed him held strong and lifted Riley's wildly kicking feet off the ground with ease.

The whole attack couldn't have lasted more than a few seconds. As soon as the chloroform soaked rag covered Riley's face he felt his eye lids grow heavy with unwanted sleep. The last thing he saw before the drowsiness took over completely were Ben and Abigail's lights moving further away in the darkness before disappearing entirely.

* * *

Ben stood perplexed, his hand rubbing thoughtfully against his jaw. "Maybe we missed another turn somewhere..."

"You mean one that doesn't lead to a dead end?" Abigail scoffed.

"Uh, yeah," Ben mumbled back as he stared at the very blank rock wall in front of them. "That would be good. Hey, Riley did you see any other ways we could have gone? ... ...Riley?"

Ben and Abigail turned to look behind them where they were sure Riley was still following. The young man had been silent for a good twenty minutes already, which had admittedly made their travels much easier. Neither of them even suspected that he wouldn't be there when they turned around.

"Riley?" Ben blinked with a surprised expression that quickly turned to one of alarm. He hurried back the way they came, calling his friend's name desperately. "_Riley_!"

"He's not here, Ben," Abigail said calmly, hoping to quell some of his rising panic.

"Then where is he?"

"Maybe he...just got lost somewhere," she said, trying to convince herself as well as Ben that it was true. "Don't worry-we'll find him..."

_

* * *

_

Not my greatest first chapter, but, meh, it had to start somewhere. So gimme just a few reviews por favor and we'll get this thing going ASAP :)


	2. The Antagonist

**Chapter II: The Antagonist**

Riley blinked slowly to awareness and wondered why his head was hurting so much all of a sudden. He remembered following Ben and Abigail, trudging along in the dark cave looking for the Fountain of Youth, then...nothing. It bothered him that he couldn't recall immediately how he'd gotten from there to where he was now, lying flat on his back on a hard and uncomfortably cold surface, but the more he thought about it the worse his throbbing headache got.

He attempted to sit up or roll over so he could at least cradle his aching skull in his hands but found he couldn't move. When he tried to yank his arms up he was horrified to discover that they were stuck tightly in place at his sides by thick, rusted metal cuffs that wrapped around his wrists. He tried moving his legs, but his ankles were similarly chained. He shivered in terror where he lay on what he morbidly determined was a rocky slab most likely used as some kind of ancient sacrificial altar.

He swallowed hard and tried to distract himself from his rising panic by surveying his new surroundings. He was still somewhere in the Floridian cave, that much he could easily tell thanks to the fact that this particular room was artificially lit. Two bright lights stood off to the side, one with its beam pointed where he lay and the other glaring down over a metal table that was covered with shiny beakers and other science-y looking items. Riley didn't recognize them or their purposes, but his stomach flipped nervously when he considered his predicament and the instruments' implications.

Riley turned away from the table and found himself staring at the ceiling. The large lamps' reflections were dancing off of it, the way light would move if it were shining on water. Riley's eyes widened with realization. Though he couldn't see the pool from where he was lying he was absolutely certain that it was somewhere in the vast cave with him.

If he ever got out of the situation he currently found himself in, he was totally claiming Fountain of Youth discovery dibs before Ben and Abigail.

"Ah, Mr. Poole. You're awake."

The voice that suddenly broke the eerie silence startled Riley enough that he whipped his head around to find its source. He immediately regretted the action though as he had to squeeze his eyes shut to keep the room from spinning around him. Nausea turned his stomach and it took all his strength to swallow hard against his gag reflex so he wouldn't throw up on himself. He took a few deep breaths through his nose before opening his eyes a crack to see a pale blue buttoned dress shirt in front of his face. He blinked and turned his head back again so he could look up at the person who was wearing said blue shirt beneath a pristine white lab coat.

A balding, wrinkled man who looked to be in his seventies at least grinned back at Riley, his green eyes glistening maniacally behind square glasses perched on the end of his pointed nose.

"For awhile there I was afraid I'd killed you prematurely," he said with a smile. "Imagine my elation to see you conscious again."

Riley could easily see how happy the old man was, though that did nothing to make him feel any less frightened. He parted his dry lips to ask just what in the hell was going on when an old hand with long, gnarly fingers smothered his mouth.

"Shh," the man hissed. "Your friends are close by, but if you yell for them they will be killed long before they can come to your rescue. I need you to promise me you won't _scream_."

Riley's eyes widened at the threat and forced himself to nod as best as he could with the hand still over his mouth.

"Good boy." The hand pulled away, then lightly patted his cheek. The old man chuckled when Riley flinched away from the unwanted touch.

Then he stepped back and stared down at Riley with that disconcerting smile of his for a very long time before asking, "you don't even remember me, do you Mr. Poole?"

Riley could only stare stupidly up at him, confirming that no, he did not recall the crazy old man.

"I am Dr. Mitchell Farnsworth," he explained. "I met you and your friend Ben and the lovely Dr. Chase much earlier this morning in St. Augustine. I tried to steer you all in the wrong direction, telling you the history of the Fountain and where it was thought to be."

Riley vaguely recognized the old man now, though he had looked far less insane inside his office at the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park. Ben had trusted the man and had never thought for a second that he was being deceived, even when the "good" doctor's advice had led them into a dangerous trap.

"I was sure the natives would frighten you off the trail," the doctor continued. "Especially after I informed them you were going to steal their holy waters. They've been protecting it for centuries, and it has taken me quite a while to earn their trust, as misleading as my intentions are."

He gestured over Riley towards another part of the cave, just beyond the table of scientific instruments. A large, darkly tanned man with fierce beady eyes glared at him from the shadows there. His slick, dark hair was tied back at the base of his neck beneath the ragged bandana he wore on his head and his loosely buttoned white shirt, dark pants, and dark boots were rugged and worn to match. His overall appearance-coupled with the jagged scar that ran over one of his eyes and his shabby black beard-was that of a stereotypical pirate.

Normally Riley might have mocked the ridiculous manner of dress, but he was pretty sure this was the man who had forced him into his current disheartening situation and the same man who had led the attack on the treasure hunters earlier that day in Ponce de Leon.

"Their little faction was foolish enough to believe I was a harmless old man," the doctor continued. "In fact, after I told them about you and your friends that big, stupid oaf of a leader led me right to this place without any hesitation!"

Riley swallowed hard and glanced nervously over at the oaf in question who stood like a statue in the dim light.

"Oh don't worry," Farnsworth said with a laugh. "Alonzo doesn't understand a word of English, and he's more brawn than brain anyway."

The pirate called Alonzo didn't even twitch at the doctor's insults, though Riley could swear he saw a flash of something sinister in those dark eyes at the sound of his name.

"So here we are, at the sacred pool, yet I hesitate. Who knows what unpleasant aftereffects the waters may cause? I certainly am not ready to use myself as a guinea pig, and using Alonzo is, of course, out of the question. Then, just when I was beginning to contemplate taking drastic measures to attain what I desired, you and your friends walked into my office.

"I really never expected you to get as far as you did, especially after all you've been through today. But you persistent treasure hunters somehow managed to escape and find the true resting place of the Fountain. Alonzo believed you to be trespassers, and it didn't take much convincing to get him to snatch you up for me.

"I actually wanted your friend Ben," Dr. Farnsworth revealed with a heavy sigh. "He would have remembered me and this whole revelation would have been that much sweeter. Alas, beggars can't be choosers, I suppose. One undesired test subject is better than none."

Riley swallowed hard. "'T-test subject'?"

The old man grinned. "Yes, well, there is no factual record in history of the Fountain's effects on humans. They could be instantaneous, they could be devastating... If you survive I'll have to keep you for various tests to see if and how the chemicals in the water interact with the human body."

"_If _I survive?"

The doctor ignored Riley's horrified exclamation as he stepped away to take something from the metal table. He poked around his tools and eventually retrieved a small, glass vial before strolling purposefully out of sight somewhere behind his hostage's head. Riley couldn't arch his neck enough to see just what the old man was doing, but he could very clearly hear a soft plop of something being submerged gently into a body of water.

Riley softly cleared his throat and parted his dry lips. "To be honest I'd rather not be a part of your creepy little experiment," he said as confidently as possible despite the very fearful quiver in his voice. "And...and if you let me go now there could be a very nice car in it for you. D-did I mention it's a cherry r-red Ferrari?"

Farnsworth laughed, the sound echoing eerily through the cave. "I drive a Bentley Rolls-Royce Phantom VI, circa 1977. I daresay my own vehicle makes your little sports car look like a cheap toy."

"Wow, really? That's so cool..." Riley muttered absently while he pictured the classic car in his head. "Wait, no! Not cool!"

The doctor suddenly returned to Riley's line of sight with the vial now full of sparkling clear liquid in hand. Riley pulled uselessly at his restraints but the triumphantly grinning Dr. Farnsworth was unperturbed-clearly he didn't expect the young man would be able to escape.

"Hold still, Mr. Poole," he said like he was casually scolding a misbehaving child. "This will be easier for both of us if you do."

"No! No listen, man," Riley gasped. "I know I'm...that I can be totally immature sometimes...actually most of the time... I mean, just ask Ben, or Abigail, or Ben's dad, or Ben's _mom_, or that Sadusky guy..."

Farnsworth's skeletal fingers grasped Riley's jaw but Riley just kept babbling in the hopes that he could at least keep the inevitable from happing as quickly as it was.

"...They'll all tell you I already act like a kid on a regular basis, so see I really don't need to turn into one again. I went through puberty once, and it sucked, so I really _really_ don't think I'd like doing it again..."

The doctor sighed. "Are you quite finished, Mr. Poole?"

"N-no..."

"Too bad."

With that the old man tightened his grip so he could hold Riley's mouth open and effectively shut him up. Riley renewed his struggles but Farnsworth held strong and brought the glass vial to the young man's face. Riley clenched his eyes shut, anticipating the worst and waiting for his short life to flash before his eyes...

"That is not a wise idea, _doctor_."

Both Riley and Farnsworth froze at the sound of a gruff, heavily accented voice and turned to stare at the large man who was emerging from the shadows. Alonzo had stepped forward and there was no doubt in Riley's mind that the native did in fact understand English.

"Alonzo, what-"

"I'm through humoring you with ignorance," the behemoth growled as he stepped right up to the trembling old man. "I have guarded this place for far too long to let someone like you take advantage of it. You want the holy waters so badly? Well here they are, and here you will stay eternally."

The doctor's eyes bulged at the larger man's threat. "Y-you can't do this to me! My life's work-"

"Was wasted," Alonzo stated bluntly.

When the doctor looked ready to protest again the larger man shoved him easily to the ground.

"H-hey what about me?" Riley called as he struggled in vain against his restraints. "You...you're gonna let me go, right?"

Alonzo turned, seemingly noticing the young man for the first time. He glared down at Riley with a look of disgust on his face.

"You and your friends are just as bad as him," he spat, nodding in the direction of Farnsworth who was still cowering on the floor. "You all deserve to be trapped here to die."

"'Trapped'?" Riley gasped. "But...I-I didn't even want to be here! And we weren't gonna do anything bad like Dr. Franken-creepy over there, I swear! We're just on a peaceful little mission for a guy-maybe you've heard of him-he goes by _Mr. President_. Of the United freaking States of kickass America-"

Riley's panicked rambling was silenced by a well aimed punch to his jaw.

"Good-bye, Mr. Poole," the large man growled, his voice sounding like a distant echo in Riley's ears. "I pity you and your wasted life."

Stars danced in Riley's eyes and he must have blacked out for a minute, because when he forced his eyes to focus Alonzo was gone.

"Crap," Riley groaned. He blinked away the lingering dizzying effects of this latest blow to his head and yanked on the chains around his wrists again. His desperate struggles and frantic squirming were of no use, forcing him to come to the conclusion that unless someone came to help him he was royally screwed.

A deep moaning echoed through the room and sent shivers down Riley's spine. He arched his neck and turned his head as far as he could until he saw the doctor slumped near the wall. The old man shifted and moaned again while Riley watched him.

"Hey, Ben!" he yelled as loudly and desperately as he could. Farnsworth had said his friends were close, he only hoped they were close enough to reach him before the crazy doctor woke up. "Ben! Abigail! I'd really liked to be saved right now! Pretty please..."

* * *

"..._Ben_!"

The treasure hunter froze mid step. "Did you hear that?"

Abigail strained her ears. "Hear what?"

"_Abigail_!"

"Riley!" they gasped simultaneously.

"_I'd really like to be saved..._" Riley's voice trailed off under the stamping of feet as Ben suddenly turned and dashed in the direction of the sound. Abigail was quick to follow.

They were just starting towards the glow of a distant artificial light when a deafening bang shook them off their feet. Ben instinctively covered Abigail's body with his own against the rain of small rubble that came down on them. After a long moment, the world steadied itself again.

"Ben," Abigail gasped. "Was that a...?"

"Bomb," Ben groaned back as he recalled the attack made on them earlier that day when the cult had used a very explosive concoction to blow up the treasure hunters' car. And now they were here, attacking them again while Riley was still missing.

Ben quickly got to his feet and hurried through the cave with Abigail's hand held tightly in his own.

"Riley! Where are you?"

* * *

"_Riley_!"

"Ben!"

The young man practically cried for joy. Ben's voice was getting significantly closer with each yell that wasn't drowned out by the rumbling of falling rocks. Even if they did end up trapped, at least Ben would be with him. Ben always had a plan for this kind of situation.

But the villainous Dr. Farnsworth apparently had plans of his own. Riley was so focused on Ben's voice that he didn't notice the doctor creep over to him with the vial of clear liquid still in his gnarly hands.

Without warning he grasped Riley by the face and pinched his cheeks to force his jaw open while he emptied the entire glass of liquid into the frightened young man's mouth. Riley choked and sputtered and couldn't help but swallow the concoction as it flooded his throat. The attack had happened so quickly and so violently that his brain didn't even get a chance to process that he was screwed.

When the vial was completely empty the doctor tossed it to the side so he could clutch Riley's face in both of his hands. The Fountain's effects were instantaneous-Riley abruptly stopped coughing and his blue eyes widened when he suddenly gasped and convulsed on the table.

"Yes!" Farnsworth cried, oblivious to the seizing body he was still grasping. "It's working! After all these years, the world will finally know the truth! And I will live FOREVER!"

Riley finally stopped twitching but the doctor was oblivious as he'd already raised his hands and eyes to the heavens in triumph while he cackled manically at his success. His cheering was short lived though, as another rumble shook the cave so violently that he was knocked off of his feet into sudden darkness. Stunned, the frail old man tried to push himself up only to be knocked back to the hard ground as a piece of the rocky ceiling fell and struck him on the back of his head. The last thing he saw were two blurry beams of light rushing into the room before unconsciousness took him completely.

* * *

"Riley!" Ben screamed. He'd just gotten a glimpse of his friend twitching on a large slab of rectangular rock while the doctor they'd met back in St. Augustine stood laughing over him. Ben briefly wondered what Farnsworth had to do with all this when an explosion suddenly knocked him off his feet. Rubble and dust were falling everywhere and one of the artificial lights that had illuminated the small cavern went out with a crash.

Then, after an agonizingly long rumble of destruction, the noise stopped and the ground was still. Ben was on his feet before the dust even started to clear and dashed in the direction he'd been originally headed with his flashlight sweeping the area erratically in his panic.

"Riley," he choked, coughing momentarily on the thick smoke that engulfed him. "Riley…where are you?"

He heard a crunch of broken glass behind him as Abigail stepped forward, and after a few hacks she was yelling along with him. "Riley!"

They were getting desperate when the dust finally started to disperse, leaving an almost perfectly clear path to the very center of the room where a body lay miraculously unharmed by the chaos around it. Ben didn't hesitate to run forward, even as he tripped over rocky debris and Dr. Farnsworth's still form. He came to an abrupt halt where Riley had been just moments before and stared, mouth agape in horror by what he saw through the dim beam of his light.

"Oh my God," he moaned.

He heard Abigail catch up to him and then stop with a gasp, her eyebrows raised in shock by who she too saw was lying there on the table. "Ben, who is _that_?"

_

* * *

_

Whew, I really dragged that out didn't I? What originally started as a maybe three shotter with short chapters has turned into quite a ridiculously epic little story :)

_I posted this ahead of schedule because you guys were sooo good with the reviews on that first chapter! And I was so happy to read all your wonderful comments that I couldn't leave you hanging for too long :) _

_After this though I'll most likely be sticking to a schedule...say a post every five days, pending any major crises of course._


	3. The Boy

**Chapter III: The Boy**

"Riley?" Abigail said in disbelief. "But…but that can't be our Riley. He's…he's a…"

Ben merely nodded with a quirky, humorless little grin on his face. The dark haired boy sleeping there in front of them couldn't have been more than six or seven years old, but there was no doubt in Ben's mind that this was in fact their Riley.

"I guess the Fountain of Youth really works," he mused.

The rusted cuffs that had once held older Riley tightly in place now hung loosely around younger Riley's thin wrists and Ben was able to slip them out easily without having to undo the locks. Ben moved to free Riley's ankles, but noticed that Riley's shortened legs didn't even reach far enough down the table to reach the restraints. His old, tattered Chuck Taylors lay at the end of the stone slab, now far too big for little Riley's feet.

"Alright, uh, Riley," Ben said as he pulled the near weightless body to a sitting position. "Come on, buddy. Wake up. Tell me you're alright..."

Riley's head merely lolled forward and he made a little whiny noise of protest. Clearly he had no intention of waking up anytime soon. Ben sighed as he ran a hand through his thinning hair and glanced momentarily at Abigail who looked like she was still in shock. He honestly wasn't sure how he felt-he didn't know if should feel worried, or frustrated, or still just baffled. Maybe all of the above. The only thing he did know for sure was that they needed to get out of there, and fast.

"Okay," he said to himself. "Okay, we can do this. _I _can do this..."

Ben gently put his hands under the boy's armpits. The older man had little to no experience in dealing with children, let alone picking them up. The fact that he would've never even imagined having to carry Riley anywhere only added to the strange awkwardness of the situation.

"Ben, be careful," Abigail warned as he haphazardly lifted the boy up by his arms.

Riley whined with discomfort, so Ben adjusted his hold to around the boy's back and hefted him up, baggy adult sized clothes and all. He had to try very hard not to think about the Riley he knew as the little boy suddenly stuck his thumb in his mouth and rested his dark head contentedly against Ben's chest.

"Okay," he said aloud. "This is okay. I can deal with this. We can deal with this." He glanced again at Abigail, then down to young Riley's peacefully sleeping face. "Can we? Riley, you are going to be sooo mad when you wake up…"

The cave around them began to quake again, only this time the explosion seemed much, much closer than the last.

"Ben!" Abigail screamed and pointed in the direction they'd come. Rocks were falling, small ones at first, but there was no doubt in the treasure hunter's mind what the intended result of the bombs was to be.

"Ben...Ben we'll be trapped!"

"Go!" he yelled back. "Hurry!"

She dashed for the passageway they'd come through and Ben started to follow with his little burden but backtracked to grab Riley's discarded shoes with his free fingers. He absently assumed that when Riley was turned back to normal, he would want to have shoes to wear.

He caught up to Abigail and together they sprinted blindly through the dark, dusty caves as the ceiling crumbled down around them. They ran despite the fact that they were hopelessly lost, and it was only by pure luck that they managed to eventually find themselves outside again. But they didn't stop to celebrate-the men that had attacked them earlier that very day were there watching the destruction they were causing.

And soon the group's collective attention was drawn towards the treasure hunters as they raced through the darkness.

* * *

Their leader's eyes widened when he saw them, as he clearly wasn't anticipating any survivors to emerge from the dilapidated cave. By the time Alonzo fully processed what he was seeing as the man, woman, and strangely familiar looking child passed him by they were already running up the coast to their newest car. He bellowed to his cronies and they quickly charged after the treasure hunters.

Their efforts to protect the Fountain's resting place by sealing the cave shut were ultimately forgotten. At the time it seemed more pressing that they stop these outsiders from escaping and spreading word of what they'd found. Alonzo didn't even consider that the fragile old doctor would come stumbling out of the cave not long after they'd abandoned their post.

* * *

Dr. Farnsworth was still very, very confused due to the blow he'd received to his cranium, but eventually he managed to find his way out into the muggy Florida air. He could just make out through his cracked lenses a huge mob moving quickly up the coast, so he wisely decided to head in the opposite direction. The old man was more determined than ever to finish what he'd started, but first he needed a plan...

* * *

When they got to the car, Ben dropped a still somehow peacefully sleeping Riley into the backseat as gently as he could before jumping in to the driver's seat. Abigail was already buckled in next to him, shrieking for him to go as she watched the group of furious natives became alarmingly larger in their vehicle's rearview mirror.

Ben floored it and raced away on the dirt road, leaving their transportation less pursuers in the dust. He didn't relax his tense, white knuckled grip on the steering wheel until they were safely on the highway hours later as the sun rose behind them on the horizon. Despite their long, sleepless night neither Ben nor Abigail was even remotely tired.

He just drove on in silence while she sat next to him, turning her head every few minutes to check on the slumbering boy curled up comfortably in the back seat.

"Should he still be sleeping?" Abigail asked, with a hint of worry in her hushed tone.

Ben glanced through the rearview mirror at his dozing young friend.

"Uh, he looks okay. I guess."

She watched the boy again for a moment before whispering anxiously to Ben, "what are we going to do?"

"Honestly Abigail, I have no idea."

"Then where are you driving?"

"I don't know," he groaned. "As far away from the people who did this as possible."

"But they might know how to reverse it."

"You're not seriously suggesting we go back."

"Dr. Farnsworth could help-"

"Oh yeah, sure," he snapped back bitterly. "Except I have a feeling he'd rather use Riley as a lab rat than actually help him. When you have a more realistic plan of action feel free to let me know, because I have no idea what we're doing."

Abigail's glare darkened. She didn't like being snapped at in any situation, regardless of how everyday it was or wasn't. "What is your problem, Ben?"

"What?" Ben responded, near hysterics with his voice a good pitch higher than normal. "_My_ problem? My problem is that I have a twenty seven year old best friend in a child's body. Do you know what that makes me?"

"Ben…"

"That makes me one of those creepy…_older_ guys who get friendly with kids that aren't their own, if you know what I mean. How would you feel?"

"Ben, that's ridiculous," Abigail said firmly. "I'm sure Riley will understand."

"He's going to be extremely angry when he wakes up," Ben groaned.

"Oh, I don't know," Abigail commented. "He always acted kind of childish. Maybe he'll enjoy being a kid again."

"You're not helping me with my problem."

"Then we find a way to reverse this. We can ask Emily. Maybe she'll have an answer for us, I'm sure she's come across the Fountain in her research..."

"Nooo way. Nuh uh. I am not bringing my mother into this. Or my dad. We should figure this out as quickly as possible so things go back to normal."

"Ben you're just being selfish," Abigail countered, her voice raising slightly. "Don't you want to turn Riley back? We need all the help we can get to fix this."

Ben was quick to yell right back at her. "There is absolutely no way I'm-"

A soft, barely audible sigh interrupted the couple mid argument as the little sleeping figure in the back seat finally started to wake up. Ben and Abigail both froze as they wondered how the young man would react to his de-aged body. They mentally braced themselves, fearing the worst.

Little Riley tiredly pushed himself up to a sitting position and stretched his short arms up as high as he could while he yawned, seemingly oblivious to his too large shirt. He blinked tiredly and glanced out of the car window next to him while rubbing sleepily at his large blue eyes. After a moment a wide, goofy grin formed on his face.

"Oh, boy," he squeaked, sounding excited but still not entirely awake at the same time. "Roooaaad trip."

Ben and Abigail simultaneously sighed in relief. As long as Riley had awoken in a somewhat good mood, maybe it wouldn't be so bad when they told him what had happened.

Neither or them spoke for a whole minute while Riley watched the passing scenery with an obliviously content smile on his face, so Abigail pointedly cleared her throat. "_Ben_…"

"_What_?"

"Say _something_ to him!" she hissed back.

"Oh, okay…hey, uh, Riley, buddy," Ben said in a loud voice with a very forced chuckle. "You're never gonna _believe_ what happened last night…"

Ben glanced up apprehensively and watched through his rearview mirror as Riley turned his head towards the front of the car, his little grin falling and his eyes widening in horror when he met Ben's gaze in the mirror.

"Who...who're you?" Riley gasped, his round face suddenly very pale, as if he'd seen a ghost or worse. He rapidly turned his head, looking around nervously from Ben to Abigail to the window and then back again as it dawned on him that this road trip would not be as fun as he'd initially hoped. "Where am I? Where're we going? Where's my mommy?"

Ben glanced at Abigail who stared back at him, her jaw dropped and eyes wide with silent shock. For whatever reason neither of them had been expecting young Riley to actually be _young_ Riley.

"Riley," Ben said with a nervous laugh, hoping his friend was joking. "What are you talking about?"

But the panicked little boy wasn't listening. "Stranger danger!" he shrieked as he pointed accusingly in Ben's direction. "Kidnap!" He whirled around and frantically started looking for an exit despite the fact that they were driving full speed on the highway. When the child locks kept him from opening the door he resorted to pounding his tiny fists against the window.

"Help, help! I'm getting _kidnapped_!"

Ben was thoroughly horrified and could barely keep his attention on the road while the boy yelled in the back seat.

"Riley," he called, trying to keep his tone gentle but sounding more frustrated than anything else. "Riley, calm down! We're not kidnapping you—"

"Stranger danger! Stranger danger! I don't know these people! Somebody _heeelllppp_!" Riley continued to scream himself hoarse, and it might have seemed funny if not for the genuine terror in his shrill little voice.

"Riley, sweetheart," Abigail said calmly while Ben focused on finding a quiet place to pull over. "You know us, remember? It's me, Abigail, and Ben your _best friends_. Don't you remember us?"

She reached out to gently touch his shoulder in the hopes that he would remember or at least calm down with the contact. But as soon as her fingers brushed against his shirt he gasped in terror and pulled away. He scurried across the back seat as far from her as he possibly could and curled up against the door with his knees hugged tight to his chest. He was trembling slightly while he took panicked breaths and Abigail could swear she saw tears in his huge blue eyes.

The car had stopped by now, so Ben was cautiously turning in his seat as well which only seemed to frighten Riley worse. He exhaled shakily and stared up at the two adults with no recognition in his terrified expression.

"P-please don't h-h-hurt me," Riley squeaked.

"Oh, geez," Ben breathed as the seriousness of the situation really started to sink in. "We're not going to hurt you, Riley. I promise—"

The boy sniffled. "But I don't wanna get kidnapped."

"We're not, you—"

"I wanna go home."

"We're going to—"

"I want my MOMMY!"

He screeched the last line so loudly both Ben and Abigail flinched. Ben even went so far as to slap his hands over his ears to drown out the immense volume of the little boy's growing temper tantrum.

"Riley, honey," Abigail said, being careful now not to touch him and freak him out any further than he already was. "We promise we didn't mean to scare you. We would never do anything to hurt you."

Riley's lips quivered but he did not speak.

Abigail pressed on, hoping that the fact the boy hadn't screamed at her meant she was making progress with him. "You really don't remember us?" she continued gently. "We know you. We're your friends..."

"Yeah, Riley," Ben interrupted. "We're friends."

"I wouldn't be friends with you," Riley sobbed shakily at Ben. "You're old and s-s-scary."

The forty something year old man wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Old?" he snapped. "I'm not that old..."

"_Ben_!" Abigial hissed. "You're frightening him!"

She nodded to Riley, who had cowered even further in on himself at the sound of Ben's exclamation.

"Oh, don't be scared, Riley," Abigail cooed. "He didn't mean it. To be honest I think Ben's just as scared of you as you are of him."

Riley sniffled miserably but raised his head enough to meet her soft blue gaze. "R-really?"

"Yeah, honey. It's...it'll be okay."

The boy still looked doubtful, but Abigail's gentle words and smile coaxed him a little out of the tense ball he'd curled himself into. He stared at his hands while they twisted themselves nervously in the material of his oversized shirt.

"Can I p-please go home now?" he whined. "My mommy's gonna be worried."

Ben and Abigail glanced nervously at each other. Ben was the first to clear his throat and speak. "Um, Riley, I don't think we can do anything about that-"

At the sound of Ben's voice all progress Abigail had made with young Riley was instantly dashed as the boy screeched, "I want my mommy NOW!"

"Okay, okay!" Ben yelled back in exasperation. "Please for the love of Abraham Lincoln stop screaming! We'll get you to your mommy as soon as humanly possible, okay?"

"Ben," Abigail whispered. "How do you expect us to do that?"

"Easy, we've just got to call her and get her down here," Ben said matter-of-factly. "She might be able to calm him down at least while we figure out what's going on."

"Do you know her phone number?"

Ben groaned in frustration and Abigail took that as a "no."

"Well Riley does," she said quietly with a nervous glance to their backseat passenger who was watching them whispering with narrowed, suspicious eyes. "He's wearing the same clothes after all. Maybe his cell phone is still with him."

Ben nodded and turned back to the boy. "Riley," he said as sweetly as he possibly could. "Do you by any chance have a phone with you?"

The boy looked very confused by the question. "Nooo. That's dumb."

Ben ran a hand through his hair, barely managing to keep his temper in check. "I'm _pretty_ sure you do. Check in your pants' pocket."

"Phones don't fit in pockets," Riley snapped back, obviously not liking the condescending tone Ben was taking with him. "You're dumb."

Ben took a deep, calming breath. "Could you pretty please just check for me?" he hissed through gritted teeth.

Riley responded by sticking his tongue out at the older man.

"Alright, that's it." Ben reached back, with every intention of snatching the phone out of the little boy's pocket. But before he could even get close Riley slapped his hand away, hard. "Hey!"

"Well that's what you get," Abigail muttered to Ben, who had retracted his stinging hand with a glare. She turned to the child and opted for taking a more gentle approach. "Riley, sweetheart, could you please check your pockets? We think you might have something important for us." When the boy still looked doubtful, she continued saying, "it could help us get you back to your mommy."

Riley's glare softened a little as he looked up at Abigail's trustworthy, maternal face. "Okaaay," he sighed. He put his hands deep in his baggy pants pockets, his expression screwed up in concentration while he fished around for this so called phone. His eyes widened when his small fingers came into contact with a hard object that was a little bigger than the size of his hand. He pulled it out and looked at it with wonder while he turned it around gingerly in his grasp. "What the heck is this?"

"It's a cellular telephone," Ben said impatiently. "Now can you give it to me please?"

"No!" Riley snapped as he pulled the small device away from Ben's outstretched hand. "You can't have it." He turned away from Ben and handed it to Abigail. "You can have it."

"Thank you, honey," she said sweetly, which brought a shy smile to Riley's face.

"You're welcome," he squeaked back politely. He sent a notably smug look in Ben's direction.

Ben had to bite his tongue to keep himself from saying something snide in response. Instead he watched while Abigail searched through Riley's short list of contacts until she found the name "Mom." She hesitated and glanced at her husband.

"Ben," she said quietly. "What do we tell her?"

"Just tell her what happened."

"But don't you think that's a little…_weird_? What if she doesn't believe us? What if she gets upset when we tell her something happened to her son?"

"It'll be fine," Ben insisted. "Just tell her vaguely that something happened and that it's nothing serious, but we really need to meet her as soon as humanly possible."

Abigail pulled back in surprise. "_Me_? But I thought _you _were going to talk to her."

"Kid gave _you _the phone, didn't he?"

"Ben! I've never even met the woman before—what do I say?"

"She knows who you are. I'm sure Riley's told her all about you. Besides, you're a woman. It's easier for women to talk to each other on the phone."

"_Excuse me_? Do you realize how juvenile you sound right now? I'm not—"

"I can call my mommy," a small voice spoke up from the backseat. Ben and Abigail turned to see little Riley watching them intently. "I remembered my phone number."

"No, um, Riley, honey," Abigail said gently, the anger from arguing with Ben completely gone from her tone while she addressed the child. "I…don't think that's the best idea right now." Riley looked disheartened but didn't press the matter any further. She glanced at Ben, who pointedly averted his gaze. "Fine," she muttered with a roll of her eyes. "I'll call her."

She got out of the car after reassuring their young passenger that she would be right back and walked a short distance away. She fidgeted, obviously struggling to figure out what she would tell Riley's mother. Eventually she forced herself to hit send on the phone and after four long rings it was finally picked up.

"Hi, um, Mrs. Poole," Abigail started saying. "You don't know me but I'm a friend of you son. Riley. He's...something's happened..."

_

* * *

_

Yay little Riley! Hopefully everyone enjoyed that :)

_And thanks as always for the reviews! Keep 'em coming and I shall be back with an update in another five days :)_


	4. The Plan

**Chapter IV: The Plan**

The interior of the car was eerily silent, and when Ben glanced back at Riley through the rearview mirror he was a little taken aback that the boy was still glaring distrustfully at him through the reflection.

Ben cleared his throat. "So," he started conversationally. "Nice day we're having today."

Riley didn't even blink.

"They, uh, said it would rain later, but it looks like we're off to a good morning. Though you never can tell with this Florida weather, huh?"

No response. The treasure hunter shifted uncomfortably in his seat while the boy continued to stare with his wide, blue eyes.

"You know I don't think I've ever seen you this quiet before. It's, uh, it's a little freaky."

Riley cocked his head and scrutinized Ben as though he had three heads. Clearly he had no idea what the man was talking about.

Ben sighed. "You...you really don't remember us? Me? All the...the stuff we've done together? Treasure stuff?"

"Treasure?" little Riley asked doubtfully, though his interest had apparently been piqued.

Ben grinned triumphantly for having gotten through to the boy. "Yup. You and me are treasure hunters. Actually treasure _protectors_."

"Why?"

Ben blinked. "Uh, because items of historical significance need to be protected..."

"From what?"

"Bad people. You know."

"What bad people?"

"The, um, the kind that don't appreciate history and take artifacts for personal monetary gain."

"But...why?"

Ben groaned in clear annoyance. "Because they're _bad_. I don't know why people make bad decisions. They just do. And we're the good guys."

"No you're not," Riley squeaked. "You kidnapped me. Only bad people do stuff like that."

"Darn it, Riley," Ben said, trying very hard to keep his voice from rising in frustration. "For the last time, I didn't kidnap you. In fact, me and Abigail actually _saved_ you from being kidnapped."

Riley looked thoughtful for a moment before stating, "I don't believe you. You're a mean, scary old liar man and I don't like you."

Ben wouldn't admit it out loud to anyone, but little Riley's statement had hurt his feelings quite badly. Riley was supposed to still be his friend, and as juvenile as his name calling had been it still hurt to hear.

Thankfully he didn't get the opportunity to say something back to the kid that he would regret as Abigail was returning to the car already.

"Okay," Abigail said when she sank back down into her seat, looking a little flustered. "She's in New York, but she's taking a flight down here and then we'll meet her at the airport in Orlando."

"Oh thank God," Ben sighed. "When's she landing?"

Abigail chewed her lip. "Later this afternoon."

"How much later?"

"Let's just say we have to keep Riley entertained for the majority of the day."

Ben groaned and knocked his head back against his headrest. The dull thud that followed was not nearly as satisfying as he'd thought it might be. "Well, what did you tell her?"

"Ah, not much," Abigail admitted quietly. "When I started to tell her that something happened to Riley she freaked out and said she'd be here as soon as possible. She said she was getting the first available flight, and then she just hung up on me."

They both sent a sideways glance to Riley, who was again watching them intently and trying to hear what they were saying.

"So she doesn't know about..." Ben trailed off and nodded towards the backseat.

"No," Abigail whispered back. "I didn't really get the chance to tell her."

Ben nodded. "This is...this is good. This'll work. We just have to find something to do with him-"

"Hellooo people," Riley called impatiently. "Where's my mommy?"

Abigail forced herself to smile warmly at the boy. "She's on her way. But for now we're going to take you back to our hotel with us, and we'll take care of you until your mommy gets here. Is that okay?"

The boy looked disheartened by the news and he whimpered anew through quivering lips. Clearly it was not okay that he was left with these strangers, but the promise of being reunited with his mother later gave him strength enough to nod in response to the blonde woman's question.

He sniffled. "O-okay."

She put a gentle hand on his knee and smiled warmly when he didn't pull away. "Just relax, sweetheart," she said. "Everything will be alright, I promise."

Riley nodded. She patted his leg reassuringly before turning back to the front of the car. Ben stared at her. She did a double take and stared right back.

"What?" she snapped.

"Oh nothing," Ben said lightly as he started the car again and pulled back onto the highway. "It's just I've never seen you be this..._nice _to Riley before."

Abigail rolled her eyes. "That's not-" she started.

They both glanced back at the boy to see if he was listening and noticed that his attention had once again been drawn outside and his eyelids were already beginning to droop as he was lulled to sleep again by the moving vehicle.

"That's not Riley, Ben," she said quietly. "At least not the Riley we know. He's just a frightened child and I did what I could to make him feel comfortable."

He shrugged. "I guess I'm surprised to see you have such a maternal side."

"Why is that surprising?" she said, her tone raising defensively. "I'm a woman, it's natural. Besides-I know I will make for an excellent mother someday."

Ben looked shocked. "You mean, you wanna have kids?"

"Of course I do," she answered immediately. When she saw the despondent look on Ben's face her heart sank. "Don't you?"

The treasure hunter swallowed hard and pulled at the collar of his sweater uncomfortably. "I...well I..." He fumbled with his words for a moment before finally spitting out, "I don't like kids."

"You _what_?"

"I don't like them," Ben continued. "Any of them. I just...I don't know how to deal with them. They don't like me, I find them annoying. And now...now I feel that way about Riley. Yesterday he was my best friend, now he's just some ignorant, snot nosed, back talking little brat." He exhaled shakily and shook his head. "I thought it would be weird to have kid sized Riley with an adult Riley mind, but now I'd prefer that over what really happened. At least then we could just joke about it. I don't know how to talk to a real seven year old."

"Obviously," Abigail scoffed. "But Ben, clearly your problem is you don't have enough experience with children. Maybe spending time with Riley now will be good for you."

"I don't know if that's such a great idea..."

"Ben you are going to learn to be nice to Riley," she demanded. "And then we can discuss our own children, the ones that we are having whether you _like_ them or not. Are we clear?"

Ben couldn't help but smile at her tenacity. If Abigail was this set on someday having a family with him, then he decided that it would probably be in his best interest to give her what she wanted.

"Crystal."

* * *

They arrived at their hotel in St. Augustine without another hitch. Ben parked the car and the two adults cast a wary eye at their surroundings before Abigail decided it was safe to wake their young passenger.

"Riley," she said gently to coax the boy out of his nap. "We're here."

Eventually Riley stirred and yawned loudly while he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He glanced around to see exactly where "here" was and frowned when he didn't recognize his surroundings. He sniffled sadly, wishing he was back at home and not in a strange place with even stranger people.

"Come on, sweetie."

She held her hand out and after a moment's hesitation Riley placed his much smaller palm against hers. Abigail smiled warmly and helped him hop out of the car to his feet.

"My clothes are too big," Riley commented when he stood upright and his pants slipped down his hips. He grabbed them by the waist band and held them up beneath his tent like t-shirt while his embarrassed and very confused face looked automatically to Abigail for answers. "Why are my clothes too big?"

Ben rolled his eyes at the kid for just noticing that fact now and opened his mouth to voice this thought sarcastically but Abigail cut him off with a quick glare.

"Hmm, I'm not sure, Riley," she said gently as she crouched down in front of the boy. "That's what you were wearing when we found you. Do you remember what happened?"

The boy looked thoughtfully at the pavement for a moment, and when he looked back up at Abigail he had fresh tears in his eyes. "N-no," he whimpered. "Why can't I remember?"

"It's okay, honey," the blonde assured him. She put a comforting hand on his shoulder and smiled inwardly when he didn't flinch away from her. "You're safe now with us, and that's all that matters."

She helped him adjust his belt to a tighter loop and rolled his pants up over his baggy socks. She held the discarded shoes to him, but they were humorously oversized for his tiny feet, so she settled for carrying him in her arms instead.

"There we go," she said, noting with a heavy heart that Riley was going out of his way not to touch her anymore than he had to while she held him.

They were at the hotel's front entrance when Abigail stopped and passed her burden on to a very reluctant Ben. She fished through her purse for the key card to their room and slipped it into Ben's pocket. She smirked, and it dawned on him what her evil plan was.

"Wait...you're not serious..."

"I doubt Riley wants to go shopping with me, and I _know _you don't," Abigail said matter-of-factly. She took the rental car keys in her hand before Ben could get a chance to argue. "So I'll just leave you two boys to..._catch up_. Have fun!"

Ben and little Riley watched her go longingly as she disappeared back into the parking lot with a parting wave. They stood there, both feeling lost for a moment before Ben let out a heavy, defeated sigh.

"Well kiddo," he said to the little face that was only inches from his own. "I guess it's just you and me now."

"I have to go to the bathroom," Riley said bluntly.

Ben responded by jerking the boy away from him and holding him at a safe arms length.

"I didn't yet!" Riley insisted with an embarrassed flush in his cheeks.

"Oh, okay," Ben muttered. He brought the boy close to his chest again, but not as close as it had been before-just in case. He hurried into the hotel and towards the elevator, hoping against hope that they would make it to their room in time. "Well are you...ya know... Toilet trained?"

Child Riley crossed his arms defensively, looking very much like adult Riley would with his face set in a grim, humiliated expression. "I'm not a baby," he muttered.

But to Ben he might as well have been a baby. He didn't know anything about kids, which is probably why he didn't like them. They were like mindless, fragile little toys that talk and have bodily functions but no off button for when they do something especially obnoxious or stupid.

"Lemme down," Riley whined once they were in the elevator.

Ben obliged with a stiff nod and Riley immediately scooted away on his socked feet into a corner as far from Ben as he could get in the small space. The treasure hunter shifted uncomfortably and tried to ignore the few odd looks he received from the elevator's other passengers until they arrived on the twenty second floor.

"Come on, Riley," Ben said. Riley shuffled along behind him in his too large clothing and Ben made no move to pick him up again. When they arrived at their room Ben immediately pointed in the bathroom's direction. Riley dashed into it and slammed the door before Ben could even think of offering the child any assistance.

As soon as little Riley was out of sight, Ben sank on to the edge of the bed and put his head in his hands with a frustrated groan. He was giving himself a throbbing migraine just from contemplating what was going on. How were they going to turn Riley back into...Riley? Was there some kind of reverse Fountain of Youth?

Ben could only hope that the Fountain's effects eventually wore off on their own, though he had no idea how long that would even take. He just didn't want Riley to have to relive twenty years of his life. And above all else he wanted his friend back.

The doorknob to the bathroom turned with a click and Ben shot up to his feet so he could observe the boy from a safe distance.

Riley barely acknowledged Ben as he walked around the room then climbed up onto the bed, struggling momentarily as the mattress was much higher than his very short stature. Eventually he hauled himself up and crawled towards the bed's many pillows where he sat with his legs hugged to his chest. He looked up at Ben and waited for the man to make the first move.

"So..." Ben said after a moment. "Do you, uh, wanna watch TV or something?"

Riley shrugged indifferently. "Okay."

Ben flicked on the set and immediately sought out the History Channel. When he saw that an interesting looking show about the Civil War was on Ben settled down in a chair to watch.

Riley groaned. "This is boring. I wanna watch cartoons."

"'_Cartoons_'?" Ben scoffed. "Yeah right. There is nothing educational about Spongebob Square Pants, or whatever else you kids watch these days."

Riley stared at him. "What kind of pants?"

Ben rolled his eyes and was about to respond when they heard a loud knock at the door. "Huh," he muttered as he approached the hotel room's entrance. "That was fast-" he started, his words catching in his throat when he saw that it was not Abigail standing there. Instead it was a trio of large, darkly tanned men with murderous scowls on their faces.

Ben was quick to slam the door shut again. He secured the locks with shaky fingers just as a furious pounding began on the other side of the thick door. He spun around and pressed his back to it, as if his weight was enough to keep the men from breaking in.

"Not good," he gasped as his eyes frantically swept the room for some kind of alternate escape route. His gaze fell on Riley, who stared back at him with wide, fearful blue eyes. Ben immediately strode forward and hefted the boy off the bed.

"Come on Riley," he said quickly. "Time to go."

"Where?" Riley squeaked back, squirming uncomfortably in Ben's arms.

There was a door near the back of the room that separated their hotel suite with the one next to it. The second suite had originally been Riley's, as he'd claimed it was "weird" to share a room with Ben and Abigail when they were together. At the time Ben had rolled his eyes at the young man's immaturity but he'd gotten the extra room regardless. Now he was thankful he had.

He hauled himself and little Riley into the room and kicked the door shut behind him. The boy was still struggling, making it difficult for him to secure the locks.

"Riley," Ben panted. "Quit it...I can't..."

"Let go!" Riley squealed. "You're hurting me!"

Ben realized then that he was grasping Riley rather tightly around the waist, so he lowered him to the ground. As soon as he was on the floor Riley sped to the tight space between the bed and the wall so only his wide eyes and the top of his head could be seen over the comforter.

When the door between the rooms was secure Ben raced over to the main entranceway and put his eye to the little peep hole. He could just make out through the warped view the men in the hall pounding on the door of his and Abigail's room. Ben determined that if he timed it correctly, he and Riley could run out when the men broke into the suite next to them. Hopefully that would buy them enough time in the confusion to make it back to the elevator and to safety.

"Riley," he called quietly without turning from the door. "Riley come here."

"No!"

Ben straightened up and whipped his head around to stare at the boy. "Get over here right now," he hissed exasperatedly, no longer caring if his tone frightened the boy or not. He was too stressed to care.

Riley cowered at the furious expression on Ben's face, but his words remained defiant. "N-no," he whimpered. "Y-you...you said my mommy's coming."

"Riley if we stay here those men are gonna find us and _kill _us. Do you want them to kill you, Riley? Huh? _Do you_?"

Ben realized he'd said the wrong thing as soon as the words left his mouth. Riley's big blue eyes filled with tears and his lips quivered for barely a second before he started outright bawling.

"Aw geez, I didn't mean it like that!" Ben exclaimed. "I'll keep you safe, I promise! Just _please_ stop crying!" He practically ran to the other side of the room so he could kneel down in front of his friend. "I'm sorry, Riley. Okay? I'm sorry I scared you, but if you don't come with me those, uh, _bad_ men will get you."

Riley sniffled. "B-but my m-m-mommy..."

"We have to go pick her up. She's not even supposed to come to this hotel. If we go now, maybe we can get to her faster."

Riley still looked unsure, though his sobs did slow somewhat.

"I won't let anything bad happen to you," Ben said gently. "I promise."

The boy stared into Ben's blue eyes and must have seen that the man was telling the truth, because he swallowed back the rest of his tears and held his arms up as an invitation for Ben to carry him.

Ben lifted the boy carefully in his arms and waited until he heard the loud crack of the door next to them being broken. Riley squeaked at the commotion but otherwise was silent while he clutched Ben's shirt. Ben hesitated for only a second before easing out into the now empty hallway. He heard foreign yelling in the next room and knew he wouldn't have much time to get away. He held Riley close to him and sprinted down the hall and around the corner until he reached the elevator. He kicked repeatedly at the down button and in seconds the metal doors opened for him.

He dashed inside and pounded on the lobby button until the doors were safely shut. It wasn't until they started moving that he released the tense breath he didn't even realize he'd been holding.

"That wasn't too bad," he commented. "Guess our luck is finally turning, huh Riley?"

The elevator binged only two floors down and Ben assumed more hotel guests were joining there descent. But when the doors opened a crack a large hand shot through the opening and latched onto little Riley's foot.

Riley screamed shrilly right into Ben's ear and tightened his grip on the man's neck. Ben reacted instinctively-he kicked the villain right in the gut as he yanked himself and Riley backwards. The elevator doors remained open for just a split second, revealing Alonzo standing there with a furious look on his face and an adult sized striped sock in his fist. He lurched forward with a feral growl in an attempt to grab them again just as the elevator closed with a pleasant ding.

Ben didn't let the elevator stop the rest of the way down. He bolted out into the hotel lobby and didn't stop until he was at least three blocks away and safely hidden in a crowded park.

"Riley," he panted. "Riley I'm gonna put you down now, okay? Riley...let go..."

The boy shook his dark head against Ben's chest and the treasure hunter had to literally pry Riley's arms away from his neck. He set the kid on the ground and immediately felt tiny arms encircle one of his legs. Not even an hour before Riley had barely let Ben touch him, now he wouldn't let go. Ben smirked humorlessly to himself. At least they were more comfortable with each other now.

Ben used his now free-but still shaking from adrenaline-hands to fish in his pocket for his cell phone so he could call a familiar number. Thankfully she answered on the second ring.

"Now, Ben," Abigail started before he could even get a word in. "I'm sure spending a little time with Riley can't be that bad..."

"No," he snapped. "I mean it's not that. We were attacked in the hotel by those...those guys again! They must have followed us back."

"Oh my God!" she gasped. "Is Riley okay?"

"Yeah we're fine, but we really need you to pick us up so we can get the hell out of here. We're in some park a few blocks north, I think."

"Okay I'll find you," she said quickly. "Just take care of Riley."

"I will."

He closed the phone with a sigh. His head hurt even worse than before, and his body ached from having to sprint with Riley in his arms. He hated to admit it, but he was getting too old for all the stress and running around that came with their treasure hunting adventures. All he wanted to do now was sit down and relax.

Ben moved two steps towards a nearby bench when he realized his leg was still weighed down. He leaned down so he could lift Riley in his arms again and sat him down on the bench next to him. The boy wasn't crying anymore, thankfully, and he looked just as downright exhausted as Ben felt.

"You, um, okay?" Ben asked hesitantly.

"He stole my sock," Riley muttered sadly. He stared down at his tiny feet, one now sockless and barely visible beneath his baggy pants. "Oh, man..."

Ben chuckled and put a comforting hand around Riley's shoulders. "I'm sure Abigail got you some nice new socks. She'll be here to pick us up soon."

Riley looked up at Ben with wide, hopeful eyes. "And then we go see my mommy?"

"That's right, kid," Ben said confidently. "Then we go see your mommy."

_

* * *

_

Yup that's right kids, we get to see Darla...again :)

_This chapter got super duper long, so hopefully everyone enjoyed that. And I am just ecstatic to see all these wonderful reviews! Your feedback keeps me happy and writing :)_


	5. The Mom

**Chapter V: The Mom**

"My mommy's in that one?" Riley said as he innocently pointed upwards to a plane that was growing larger as it came closer to the terminal.

"No, Riley," Abigail sighed.

"Is she in that one?" He pointed to another plane that was rolling down the runway.

"No..."

Riley had spent the last half hour standing up on his seat in front of the window in the crowded Orlando airport and pointing to every plane that flew into view. In fact the one he'd just seen driving by had already been pointed out at least twice before while it was still in the air.

"Ooh! I'll bet she's in that one!"

They'd been sitting there waiting for hours now, and Riley had been babbling about something or rather for the entire time. It seemed that now that he was somewhat more comfortable with both Ben and Abigail he was more prone to talking their ears off.

"I don't think so."

"What about that one? It's got funny letters on it-"

"Riley," Abigail interrupted through gritted teeth as his finger sought out yet another jet. "Would you like me to get you a snack or something?"

"Okay!"

"Good," she said quickly as she got out of her seat. "Just wait here with Ben, alright?"

The boy grinned at her. "Okey dokey!"

Abigail forced herself to smile back before walking away. She had a distinct feeling that child Riley was playing games just to get on her nerves, very much like adult Riley would. Like it was some kind of test to see how much she could take before he could really trust her, and she didn't want to admit that she was losing. Ben on the other hand has had years of experience dealing with adult Riley's antics, so as child Riley became more comfortable with the man and therefore more _Riley _like, Ben found him considerably easier to deal with, or to just ignore completely...

* * *

She'd found them hours before sitting together on a park bench. Riley had dried tear tracks running down his cheeks, but he didn't look upset anymore while he and Ben silently watched passing pedestrians. She stood there, observing them for a few minutes with an amused grin on her face.

At one point Riley had pointed to a particularly obese man walking his tiny dog, leash in one hand and donut in the other. Ben whispered something and the boy erupted in a small fit of giggles. Apparently they'd been passing the time by poking fun at people in the park to forget the terror they'd been in not long before.

Eventually Ben noticed Abigail watching them. He grinned at her and stood but waited a beat so Riley could clamber up onto his back.

"Well it's nice to see that you two are getting along again," she said as he approached with his piggyback passenger.

"Yeah, I guess traumatic experiences have that effect on people," he commented lightly.

Riley waved shyly at her before pointing down at his one bare foot. "I need a new sock," he declared. "A pirate took mine!"

"A _pirate_?" Abigail said, humoring the child with a slight gasp.

"Uh huh. He was an ugly pirate who likes to steal people's socks. But only the right ones!"

Abigail raised an eyebrow, and Ben shrugged. "You gotta watch out for those sock stealing pirates," Ben said. "Riley gave up his as a sacrifice, so they've hopefully met their plundering quota for the day and won't bother us anymore."

"It was too big for me anyway," Riley pointed out.

"Well then it's a good thing I got you socks that will fit."

She led them back to the car and her three full bags from Gap Kids. Ben looked momentarily horrified by the obscene amount of money she must have spent in such a short amount of time, but she ignored him and grinned widely at Riley.

"I didn't know what you'd like, so a bought a few things and you can pick whatever you want. Okay?"

Riley gave her a funny look, like he was apprehensive about what she might have gotten for him. She turned over the shopping bags and spread her purchases over the car's backseat. Abigail had apparently thought of everything-there were socks and underwear, pairs of shorts and pants, numerous kinds of shirts ranging from printed childish tees to nicer polos, two different colored hoodies, pajamas, and, of course, a small pair of black and white Chuck Taylors.

"That's a 'few' things?" Ben scoffed as he set Riley down next to his gifts.

She shot him a glare. "Well I wanted to make sure we were prepared." She smiled maternally at the boy again, apparently very proud of her thoughtful purchases. "Go on, sweetie. They should all fit you just fine."

Riley wrinkled his nose at first, looking like any kid who received clothes as a present would. He fished through them indifferently at first while he searched for pants and a shirt he liked, then gasped when he saw one in particular.

"I want this one!" he said excitedly. He held up a blue T-shirt with a small, tasteful graphic of a nondescript green Brontosaurus on it. "I like dinosaurs."

Ben blinked at the boy in disbelief. "Since when?" he mumbled.

"Alright, Riley," Abigail said. "You pick whatever you want to wear and when we get to the next hotel you can change."

Riley was wide awake through the drive while he went through his gifts again and again before eventually deciding he liked the dinosaur shirt with jeans and the black hoodie. When they finally arrived in Orlando Ben sought out a hotel near the airport and rented under the name "Brown." He wasn't taking any chances by using his real name anymore.

Riley had thrown a fit when he realized his mom wasn't there in the room waiting for him. Explaining that they still had to wait for her didn't satisfy the boy, so the only option left was to go to the airport where he calmed down considerably in anticipation of seeing his mother. It wasn't long before his sudden reserve of excitement induced energy got on Abigail's nerves.

* * *

...And so she was traversing the terminal in search of a snack stand with no intention of giving the boy anything with sugar in it. There was a shop on the floor above her, just beyond the escalator before the security check point. She headed toward it and was taken upwards just as the down escalator next to her was flooded with people who must have just landed in Orlando.

She stared at one particular woman as she passed. The woman was definitely older than Abigail, though it was hard to tell by her youthful appearance alone how old she was exactly. Her dark, thin black hair was streaked with gray and pulled back in a loose ponytail. She was short, lean, and had a very familiar looking facial structure, but in the end it was the eyes that gave her away. This woman had the same bright blue eyes as Riley.

"Wait!" Abigail called. She ran the rest of the way up the escalator only to turn around and head downwards after the figure that would soon be disappearing into the crowd. "_Mrs. Poole_!"

* * *

Ben had been left to humor the boy, though while half of his attention was directed to Riley to make sure he didn't do anything stupid the rest of him was enthralled by the little device in his hands.

"What's that?" Riley asked as he pointed to thing that he was currently competing with for the treasure hunter's attention.

"Oh this? It's my Blackberry." Ben couldn't help but grin at the confused look on the little boy's face. The irony wasn't lost on him that for once he knew more about technology than Riley did. "It's a really high tech phone, and I can access the internet from it."

Riley wrinkled his nose at the device. "I don't get it."

"See right now I'm researching the, ah, treasure we were looking for in the hopes that I'll find something that could maybe make things..._normal _again."

"You're looking for treasures _now_?" Riley asked excitedly. "Can I help?"

Ben chuckled. "Well you are always my go to guy for research and stuff. In fact I could really use you to hack into Dr. Farnsworth's files in St. Augustine. He might know how to turn you back."

"Okay! What do I do?"

"Honestly, I have no idea how you do what you do, so I don't know what to tell you to do."

Riley blanked for a second before squeaking, "can I play with it?"

Ben shrugged. "Sure. Why don't you finish reading this very boring article about the Fountain of Youth and then sum it up for me?"

"Okay!" Riley said eagerly as he took the small device in his hands. "I like to read."

Ben chuckled at the kid's enthusiasm. He hadn't actually expected Riley to read the very wordy and analytical document, but once the Blackberry was in his hands he squinted and tried his very hardest to read the tiny print. And to Ben's surprise the seven year old looked like he was actually succeeding. When he reached a word he didn't know-and there were many-he took the time to quietly spell and sound it out until he could move on. Ben was impressed.

Then the phone suddenly vibrated in the little boy's hands. Riley shrieked with fright and quickly passed it to Ben, who looked just as horrified when he saw the name on the display. He knew better than to keep the man waiting and answered immediately.

"Um, hi Agent Sadusky..."

"Good afternoon, Mr. Gates," the ever professional Senior FBI Agent said with his distinctively authoritative voice. "I couldn't help but notice you and your friends seem to be stirring up trouble wherever you go. You're lucky we've grown to like you here at the Bureau-blown up cars and trashed hotel rooms aren't cheap."

Ben groaned. He did enjoy working with the United States government for once, but he did not care for the extra surveillance that came with their little deal. Sadusky had personally ensured that their cell phones were tracked so their whereabouts could be monitored at all times.

"Yeah, we ran into a little trouble..."

"I should say so," the older man chuckled. "But I assume you and your party are all in one piece."

Ben cast a sidelong glance in Riley's direction. The boy was oblivious as his attention had been captured by something outside again.

"Ben, your silence is not very reassuring."

"Sorry Sadusky. We're all..._alive _at least. We just had a little setback."

"How serious is this 'little setback'?"

Riley gasped in wonder where his face was pressed against the glass as he watched a plane speed down the runway and take off into the distance.

"Honestly I'm not sure," Ben admitted. "It's definitely something you'd have to see to believe."

"Are you inviting me to help you, Mr. Gates?"

Ben briefly considered the offer. Sadusky and the FBI were generally very helpful when it came to sorting out certain problems that came about for Ben and his adventures, but in this case Ben had to think of how they would react to de-aged Riley. He didn't want the government to turn the kid into some kind of science experiment.

"No. I think I just need some time to try to work this out."

The line was silent for a good half a minute while Sadusky made a decision. "Alright, Ben," he said. "But I'll be visiting you in twenty four hours whether you want me to or not. I'm very eager to hear what you've been up to."

"Thanks, Sadusky."

"And Ben? It was good you used an alias in Orlando, but maybe next time use something that we don't already know. Just ask your young friend. I'm sure he could come up with something more imaginative."

Ben started in surprise. Sadusky's cryptic speech, as usual, left Ben wondering if the older man knew more than he was letting on. "Okay, sure."

He was just hanging up and composing his thoughts when Riley suddenly shot up in his seat with a gasp.

"Mommy!"

Ben spun around to see just as the boy went sprinting clumsily around the row of chairs they were sitting in. Abigail was walking towards them, and next to her was another woman who he knew was Riley's mother.

She didn't hesitate or even blink at the boy running towards her. She dropped her bag and crouched down with a wide smile as Riley ran straight into her welcoming arms. Neither of them seemed bothered by the twenty years that had suddenly passed between them. Riley looked passed his aged mother's face and saw the woman he loved, and she recognized her little boy instantly without questioning what had happened. All she knew was that he needed to be comforted in a way that only his mother could satisfy.

"Oh Riley," she said as she hugged his small body close to hers. "There's my special little guy. I've missed you sooo much."

Riley clung to her for dear life and nearly disappeared in her embrace. It sounded like he was saying something, but Ben couldn't tell what-any intelligible words were drowned out by his quiet, desperate sobbing while his mother comforted him. Ben was so moved by the little scene that he actually had a physical reaction as the stressful sinking feeling that had been in his gut since the night before was lifted away. Abigail intertwined her fingers in his with sigh and he squeezed her hand right back.

Riley's mother whispered soothing words while she gently rocked her son in her arms until he had calmed down and gone limp in her grasp. Eventually she realized that she had an audience and got to her feet so she could better address Ben and Abigail. She held her now sleeping son balanced on her hip with his head resting against her neck and his thumb stuck contentedly in his mouth.

"I have to admit," Riley's mother started. "When you called this was not at all what I expected. I thought maybe the kid was like missing a limb or comatose or something, and those weren't even the worse scenarios that crossed my mind. I _hate _flying as it is, so worrying about him while I'm worrying about whether or not the plane is going to crash is not fun."

"Sorry, Mrs. Poole-" Abigail started.

"_Ms_. Poole," she corrected him. "Or just Darla is fine."

"Oh. Okay, um, Darla, I'm really sorry about all this, but we didn't know what else to do..."

"Well maybe you can start by telling me what you're doing with a miniature version of my supposed-to-be-grownup son?" She scowled at them while she absentmindedly brushed a lock of Riley's hair away from his peaceful face.

"It started as a kind of research venture," Ben started. "We were looking for the Fountain of—"

"Riley," she suddenly sighed to the boy in her arms. "I thought I told you not to do that anymore." She gently pulled on his arm until his thumb was extracted from his mouth with a small pop. "You'll mess up your teeth." Riley made a small whine of protest but otherwise did not wake up.

Ben cleared his throat and tried to continue. "It was a mission, for the President actually, but something happened—"

The older woman barely heard a word before her attention was turned back to her son who was unconsciously bringing his hand back to his face. "Come on, Riley," she said while she grasped his tiny hand in hers. "You're not a baby anymore." She saw Ben and Abigail watching her and gave them a lopsided grin. "I swear it took him forever to grow out of the habit. You were saying?"

Ben blinked. "Oh, um, well we went—"

"Wait a sec…did you feed him?" Darla interrupted. "He's probably hungry. Sometimes he used his thumb as a chew toy when he was hungry and wouldn't just say he was hungry like a normal person. I dunno why. Not like it tastes good or anything."

"Um, no. But—"

"Pizza. Kid loooves pizza."

"Oh yeah," Ben mumbled. "I knew that."

"Well I don't know about you guys but I could go for a pizza right now, just to get out of this damn airport."

"...Alright." Ben bent down to grab her bag while her arms were full. When he stood again Darla was right there in front of him, standing barely as high as his shoulders and grinning widely up at him.

"By the by, Benny," she said. "It is _very_ nice to see you again." She looked him up and down and winked seductively at him, apparently in approval of what she saw. Abigail caught sight of the gesture and turned her surprised stare to Ben, who pointedly ignored her.

"Um, yeah, you too," he said, shifting somewhat uncomfortably under the older woman's stare. He turned with her bag in hand and quickly walked away, though her short whistle indicated that she enjoyed his back view just as much as the front.

Ben's cheeks flushed and he quickened his pace. Regrettably, so did Abigail.

"...'Nice to see you _again_'?" the German woman hissed. "What was that about?"

"Nothing," he mumbled back. "I met her once, like five years ago."

"Then why in the hell did you have _me _call her?"

"Do I really need to answer that question?" he said with a sigh.

Abigail rolled her eyes and exited the terminal while Ben held the door. He continued to hold it for Darla, who he was sure was following them. But a quick glance around revealed that neither of the Pooles were there.

"Darla?" Ben called, his panic rising again. "Riley?"

Abigail quickly joined his frantic search as they backtracked through the airport. Just when things were getting desperate and Ben could only assume that they'd been captured, Abigail gasped, "there they are!"

Sure enough Darla was not far from where they'd all met up. She still had a sleeping Riley in her arms while she perused a tourist stand. She was picking through brochures when Ben and Abigail caught up to her.

"Oh sorry, guys," Darla said absently. "I got distracted. Look at all this cool stuff!" She gestured to the various attractions the state had to offer, from amusement parks, to historical monuments, to beautiful beaches. "I've never been to Florida before. We should do something fun!"

Ben had to take a moment to catch his breath and wait for his heart rate to return to normal. This was, regrettably, not a new feeling for the treasure hunter, though it was usually another Poole that induced that kind of panic.

"Let's go."

Once they were safely in the car Ben went right into his very detailed explanation of what had happened to them over the past few days. He didn't let anyone interrupt him through the whole story, and when he was finally finished Darla only had one question.

"So what do we do now?"

"I don't know," Ben admitted. "We need to find a way to turn him back to normal."

Darla frowned and turned her attention to the little sleeping form in her lap. "I kinda like him like this," she said quietly. "Kid Riley always did like me better than adult Riley."

Ben and Abigail exchanged silent, uncomfortable glances. Riley never, ever talked about his family and from Darla's disheartened comment it was clear that the Pooles had some deep seated issues that kept them apart. Issues that Darla obviously preferred to keep to herself for the time being.

"So," Ben said. "What kind of pizza does everybody like?"

* * *

Dinner passed uneventfully, as Darla was focused on entertaining the once again fully awake and energized Riley. Darla seemed to be much better suited to dealing with kids than Ben and Abigail, though her child rearing skills obviously came from experience. It was just surprising that she could fall back into step with seven year old Riley so easily after twenty years. Ben and Abigail wondered even more why exactly Riley never said a word about her as an adult.

It was getting late by the time they finished, and Riley was clearly spent for the day. They returned to the hotel and left Darla and Riley to rest while Ben and Abigail went out to replenish the luggage they'd left behind in St. Augustine. That, and they needed to discuss their next plan of action.

Darla, meanwhile, was having the time of her life. She'd been worried sick about her son when Abigail first called her, but now she was ecstatic with his unfortunate change. It was like she was getting a second chance with the kid, and this time she swore to herself she would be a better mother.

"Come on, Riley," Darla said with a yawn. She sat him down under the covers of one of the beds and crawled in next to him. "It's sleepy time."

But Riley didn't move to lay down like she had. Instead he stared at her and asked, "mommy, what happened?"

She looked up at her boy. "Uh, what do ya mean, buddy?"

Riley's face crinkled in expression of intense thoughtfulness. "I dunno... It's just, I went to sleep at home, but when I woke up I wasn't home anymore and you were gone. I got scared."

Darla perched herself up on her elbow so she could meet his eye and said, "there's nothing to be scared of. Ben and Abigail are your friends, right?"

"They say so," Riley said doubtfully. "But why would I be friends with old people I don't know?"

Darla surveyed him in the semidarkness for a whole minute. "Yeah that is kinda weird," she finally said.

"So then how come why-"

"Riley, no more questions, okay?" she interrupted quickly, only because she felt guilty for not having an answer for his queries. "Just go to sleep. Things'll be better in the morning."

"Okay," the boy mumbled, defeated. He finally laid down next to her, and when he spoke up again Darla could barely hear his tiny, anxious voice. "You...you'll be here when I wake up this time, right?"

"Yeah, of course," she answered genuinely.

"Promise?"

She gathered him into a big hug and planted a kiss on his head. "Promise."

_

* * *

_

I totally snuck Sadusky in there for funzies! They might require his assistance for the final showdown...I honestly don't know-I haven't finished writing it yet!

_Please keep up the great reviewing and I'll keep up the hopefully nonsucky writing :)_


	6. The Showdown

**Chapter VI: The Showdown**

"Hey Riley, guess what?"

"What?"

"I have a surprise planned for us today!" Darla proclaimed.

Ben and Abigail exchanged puzzled looks. A...surprise? That hadn't been in their plans for the day.

Riley gasped and jumped up and down in excited anticipation. "Really? What is it?"

"How would you like to go to...Walt Disney World?" She looked just as animated as her son when she pulled out a brochure she'd hidden behind her back and waved it in front of his twinkling blue eyes.

Riley took the advertisement from her hands and squealed at the sight of Mickey and Minnie holding hands with some random happy children in front of Cinderella's Castle. "Disney World," he happily shrieked. "I'm going to Disney World!"

"You sure are, kiddo," his mother said with a grin. "Now go get dressed so we aren't late."

"Okay!" He leapt to his feet, gathered some clothes, and sped off to the bathroom.

Darla ruffled his hair playfully as he passed. "And don't forget to brush your teeth," she called as he slammed the door shut behind him.

Ben and Abigail, meanwhile, were staring at her.

"Um, Ms...Darla?" Abigail asked hesitantly. "Do you think that's a good idea right now?"

"Yeah, of course," the other woman replied. "It's the best idea I've ever had. I never got around to taking Riley to Disney when he was really a kid, so I figured I'd make up for it now."

"But...don't you want to find a way to reverse this? To bring him back to normal?"

She blinked her wide, blue eyes as though the notion had never even crossed her mind. "Did I not mention the Disney World part? And did you not see how excited the kid is? I can't take it back now."

"I know, it's just-"

Darla dismissed her with a wave of her hand. "We'll change him back eventually. For now let's just let the kid have the fun he didn't get when he really was seven."

If Abigail or even Ben wanted to argue further they didn't get a chance as Riley emerged from the bathroom fully dressed and ready to go.

"There he is!" Darla exclaimed when the boy came sprinting at her with a bright smile on his face. "Okay, buddy! Let's go to Disney World!" She took Riley by the hand and was almost out the door before she glanced back at the treasure hunters who were still sitting there in their pajamas looking baffled. "Are you guys coming or what?"

* * *

And so two hours later, after waiting in line for tickets and watching Riley bounce around in excitement, the four of them found themselves standing on Magic Kingdom's Main Street while Cinderella's Castle loomed in the distance. While Ben and Abigail were still reluctant to have fun, the Pooles had a blast going on rides and seeing everything there was to see. Ben wouldn't let them out of his sight so he and Abigail did eventually accompany them on the rides. The treasure hunter would never admit it, but he really was having a good time.

The day's end came far too fast and Ben quickly became anxious once again. Sadusky had emailed him, saying only that he was "on his way" and would no doubt be showing up any moment. And then what? Ben hadn't done any further research to find a cure for Riley and he was out of ideas. Soon the situation would be out of his hands whether he wanted it to be or not.

* * *

"Wow!" little Riley gasped. "Mommy, did you see that one?"

"Yeah that was a good one..." She trailed off with a low, impressed whistle as the dark sky was streaked with new colors. "Ooh but that one was better."

"I like fireworks," Riley announced. He was sitting on his mother's shoulders which gave him a much better view, though Darla's small form was definitely slouching under his weight.

"Yeah I know you do, buddy," she chuckled. "I know."

Ben, meanwhile, was scanning the crowd for any indication that the FBI had arrived when he noticed a large figure that made his blood run cold. Alzonzo was there, and his dark beady eyes were clearly on the hunt.

"We've gotta go," Ben whispered to Abigail. He pointed out what he'd seen and she gasped in horror. "It's not safe here. We have to meet Sadusky."

The German woman nodded and glanced at Darla and Riley who were still watching the fireworks show with wide, awed eyes. "But what about-"

"We can't keep this from him," Ben said grimly. "I...I don't know what the FBI'll do with Riley."

"Are you sure there's nothing we can do?"

Ben's posture slumped in defeat. "I'm out of ideas, Abigail. At least he's having a good time being a kid again."

He glanced over at Riley's smiling face. Darla met his gaze for a second, though her own grin fell when she saw the treasure hunter's downcast expression. Something was going on, and her gut told her that her good times with little Riley were coming to an end.

* * *

The fireworks finale was fizzling out, and already the crowds of tourists were surging down Main Street USA towards the park's exit. Ben and Abigail moved quickly in that direction as well, but Darla pulled over in front of a semi quiet alley between shops and crouched down to meet her son's eye level.

"Riley," Darla said. "We had lots of fun today, right?"

"Yeah! 'Cause we're in Disney World!"

"That's right! So...so listen to me for one second buddy, okay?" She swallowed hard and struggled for a moment to figure out what exactly she was trying to say. "If something happens, if you, let's just say if you _grow up_, promise me you won't forget what a good time we had today."

"I won't."

"And...and if you do remember this when you..._grow up_...maybe you could remember this and not remember some other stuff. But if you do remember, I need you to know that I'm sorry, and I'm sorry I haven't said that I'm sorry sooner."

Riley blinked. "Okay. I forgive you."

"No, wait, I didn't finish. I wanna say I'm sorry that I didn't always do the right thing when you were a kid. I didn't always have your, ah, best interest in mind when I did the things I did. I admit I was selfish, but can you really blame me? I mean, we were both growing up together, and I had no idea what the hell I was doing.

"Not that I regret any of it! No way. I love you, kid. Even though you always claimed I was _embarrassing_ -which I wasn't- I'm sorry you thought that anyway. It's like the closer I wanted you to be, you the more you wanted to get away from me. Though you did buy me that place in France, that was nice..."

"I did?" Riley squeaked.

"Ah, sort of. You will. Probably." She trailed off and glanced over at Ben and Abigail who were watching them from a distance, waiting for her so they could leave. But before they could leave Darla knew she had one other thing she had to apologize for. "And Riley, I just need to say that I...I'm...trying to say..." She sighed heavily and finished her last apology so fast that the words were barely understandable. "I'm sorry I never told you about your dad when you were a kid."

Riley looked thoroughly confused, but not at all upset or resentful like she knew he would have been if she'd tried to apologize to him as the twenty seven year old he was supposed to be.

"Do...do you kinda get what I'm trying to say?"

Riley shook his head.

She grinned and playfully ruffled his hair. "Well you will, trust me. And then this will make more sense. I'm just glad I finally got all that emotional crap off my chest now. You wouldn't believe how physically painful it is to have all those apologies in my brain all the time, seriously. But you know I'll always love you, right kiddo?"

Riley nodded and hugged her neck. "I love you too, mommy."

"Oh that's what I like to hear." She gave him one last loving squeeze before pulling away and getting to her feet. "Alright. Let's get going. I'm tired."

"Me too," he yawned.

She took his hand and led him back to the crowd where Ben and Abigail were waiting to leave. "We'll call it a night and do something fun again tomorrow."

"Yay," he exclaimed tiredly.

"We could go to another part of Disney. Whaddya think...Animal Kingdom? Epcot? MGM... Oh wait now it's just called Hollywood something..."

But her son didn't respond, as the tiny hand that was held slack in her own had disappeared.

"Riley?" she called as her eyes frantically searched the thinning crowd. "Riley?"

When Ben turned to her with a questioning look she was hysterical.

"He was right here, now he's not!" Darla shoved people aside and moved in no particular direction still calling her son's name.

"We have to find him!" Abigail gasped. "What if-"

"No," Ben replied firmly. "I'll find Riley, you go get Sadusky. If something did happen we'll need his help now more than ever."

The blonde nodded despite the concern for little Riley that clearly shown in her glossy blue eyes. She kissed Ben quickly for good luck and disappeared into the crowd. Ben took off after Darla, who was rounding a block of the Main Street shops in a hurry. No doubt she'd seen her son somewhere behind the buildings. He caught up to her just as she was about to disappear through some shadowed, unmarked door.

"Wait," he said quietly. "We don't know what's in there..."

"The hell I don't," she snapped back. "Some old dude just dragged my kid in there!"

"Old...?"

Barely a second passed before Ben's eyes widened in realization. But before he could inform Darla who exactly had her son she was shoving him aside and yanking open the door.

A dimly lit metal staircase led them downwards into a tight, concrete tunnel that reminded him of the ancient caves he'd traversed the day before on Florida's coast. It was such a start contrast from the vibrant amusement park outside that Ben could hardly believe he was still in Disney World.

They tip toed along, surprised by how quiet and deserted it was as compared to the crowds above. Eventually they came to a turn that led to a much wider tunnel where they saw a thin figure crouched near the wall.

It was Dr. Farnsworth, looking disheveled and more than a little crazed as he manhandled a squirming little Riley. He had one bony fist clenched in the kid's shirt collar and the other firmly planted over Riley's mouth as he shoved the tiny body against the wall. His eyes bulged in horror as he took in the boy's appearance.

"Mr. Poole," the doctor hissed, oblivious to the confusion and terror in Riley's wide eyes. "Is that you? But it wasn't supposed to happen this way! You shouldn't be a...a _child_!"

Darla stepped forward with a growl but Ben stopped her with his hand. He had a bone to pick with this man, and he wasn't going to let the opportunity slip.

"Hey, doc."

The old man was so caught up in his shock over seeing Riley's de-aged form that he didn't hear Ben or even sense him approaching until he felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked up, only to see Ben's fist strike him hard in the face with a sickening crunch. The skeletal fingers released their grip and Dr. Farnsworth sank to the ground in a daze while blood flowed freely from his nose.

Riley quickly scrambled away from the old man and into his mother's arms just as an explosion suddenly rocked the tunnel. Apparently Alonzo hadn't bothered to see if the door was unlocked as he much preferred blowing any and all obstacles out of his way.

The resulting dust and debris cloud was blinding for a moment, and Ben was too busy hacking to clear his lungs that he didn't notice Alonzo alone was stalking slowly towards them. He grabbed at Darla's shoulder while she sat crouched protectively over her frightened son and silently indicated that she follow him further down the tunnel away from their attacker. She scooped Riley into her arms and scrambled to her feet.

Ben turned to run with no idea as to where he was going, or what he was going to do once he got there, but he'd barely gone a step when he heard Darla's short cry of alarm followed by a thud.

Farnsworth had recovered from his broken nose and the explosion enough to grasp Darla around the ankles before she could run away. She and Riley went tumbling to the concrete floor as Ben retreated to haul the surprisingly spry Farnsworth away from them. He regrettably hadn't noticed the pistol stuck in the old doctor's belt until it was pointed in his face.

At about the same time a large hand reached down and grabbed Riley by the arm before his mother could gather him into her arms again. Riley was hauled kicking and screaming off the ground by the same man who had taken his sock the day before. Alzonzo barely managed to carry Riley a few steps before something struck his back, causing him to stumble in surprise and drop the struggling boy to the floor. Riley tumbled gracelessly to the ground headfirst and didn't get up again.

"_Riley_!" Darla screamed.

Farnsworth was momentarily distracted by the scene taking place barely twenty feet from him which gave Ben the opportunity he needed to grab the gun. The old man growled and refused to let go, even as Ben yanked the pistol high above his head. He should have been able to easily win over the old man, but he was having trouble focusing on his brawl with Farnsworth while little Riley lay motionless on the concrete.

Darla had leapt on Alzonzo's back as soon as the man grabbed her son, and now that he'd dropped Riley and potentially hurt him further she was determined to claw the pseudo pirate's eyes out. Alonzo howled as her short nails slashed at his face. He couldn't quite reach his back enough to yank her off, so he blindly stumbled forward until he hit a wall and slammed Darla against it.

The wind was knocked out of her as she lost her grip on his neck and slid to the ground. She spotted Riley not far from her and started in his direction, but had barely gone a step when Alonzo yanked her back by her ponytail. She hissed in pain through gritted teeth and turned her glare at him, clearly still itching to fight for her boy.

They all suddenly froze at the sound of a soft whimper as the little figure they were battling over finally stirred...

* * *

Riley raised his sore, dizzy head and whimpered. The boy wiped pained tears out of his eyes and was met with a very strange scene. To the left Ben was holding a gun with a gasping and bloodied elderly man, while to the right his mother was attempting to fight off a man twice her size who looked suspiciously like a pirate.

"Ooh, Riley, sweetheart," Darla gasped. "Thank God you're okay. Go over to Ben, he'll keep you safe." She pointed one shaky hand in Ben's direction while the other grappled with a hand that was fisted in her hair. She had her foot up and pressed against the pirate's side in an attempt to dislodge herself from his grip but so far her efforts had been fruitless. "Riley, you've gotta go with Ben now..."

Riley swallowed hard and glanced over at Ben who clearly had the upper hand over the barely fragile old man with the bleeding nose. It did look safer over there, but Riley didn't want to go with Ben-he wanted to be with his mother.

"Riley," she groaned when she saw the hesitation in his eyes. "Go with Ben!"

The boy whimpered and shook his pounding head. He forced himself to his feet and started in her direction, but had barely gone a step when his legs shook and gave out on him. They felt funny. In fact his whole body suddenly felt funny, like his skin was being stretched too far over his flesh.

He tried to get up again and promptly fell over for a second time, his head now swimming to the point where he thought he was going to throw up. He clutched his stomach with shaking arms and looked up at his mother with tears in his eyes.

"M-mom," he croaked, his voice cracking strangely. What had started as a dull ache over his entire body suddenly intensified to an almost burning sensation that was devouring him from the inside out. He whimpered in pain and did not try to get up again. He didn't think he'd be able to, not while he was shaking as badly as he was. "Mom...h-help..."

"Riley!"

She took Alonzo by surprise when she suddenly lowered her aim and rammed the flat heel of her Mary Jane into his crotch. He released her with a gasp and she was finally able to sprint over to her small sobbing son and gather him into her arms.

"Riley! Riley!" He was curled up in a ball on her lap, quivering so badly that she shook with him. He twitched violently and cried out in agony. Darla was horrified to feel him almost stretching and growing in her arms. "Holy crap..."

Alonzo quickly recovered from his surprise and moved to lunge at an oblivious Darla with a feral growl. Ben saw what he was doing and quickly yanked the gun from Farnsworth's hands so he could intercept the giant's path in the hopes that he could be held at gunpoint and not hurt anyone else until Sadusky arrived. Ben's plan had worked, and Alonzo was no longer interested in Riley or Darla. Instead he was bearing down on Ben and the pistol that Ben had no intention of actually using with a murderous gleam in his eyes.

Ben swallowed hard but clenched his shaking fists, hoping that he didn't look as terrified as he felt. Alonzo bared his teeth and reared back his boulder sized fist...

"Ben!"

Both his and Alonzo's head snapped in the voice's direction. Abigail was standing there at the mouth of the tunnel, her expression one of shock and relief that he was okay. Next to her was FBI Agent Peter Sadusky, who quickly pointed to Alonzo.

"Arrest him!"

Half a dozen authoritative figures suddenly appeared and trained their guns on the villain. Alonzo's eyes bulged and for a second he looked ready to fight them all to the death. But as the FBI approached with their weapons at the ready Alonzo apparently thought better of the situation and raised his hands with a growl of defeat. Two agents rushed over to cuff the giant while another apprehended the barely lucid Dr. Farnsworth.

Abigail took hesitant steps forward to Ben's side but didn't say a word while both their eyes remained glued to Riley's now still form.

"Wow," was all Ben, or anyone in the room could say.

"Aw they grow up sooo fast," Darla groaned from the floor with a forced chuckle, as Riley's weight and size had quite suddenly gone back to that of a normal twenty seven year old where a seven year old had just been. It was quite awkward and uncomfortable for him to be sprawled on top of her like he was.

"Maybe a little...too fast," she gasped. "Gaaah, I'm being...crushed..."

Once he was over his shock, Ben took a step forward to help her but froze in place when he saw that Riley was waking up.

* * *

Riley groaned as he slowly regained consciousness. He was lying curled up against something very warm and comfortable that he didn't really want to have to leave at the moment, but his pounding headache would definitely require some relief sooner rather than later.

He shifted, about to push himself off of what he assumed was his own bed, and heard a slight rip. Confused by the sound, he forced his eyes to open and through bleary vision noticed he wasn't in his bed and he wasn't even lying on a flat surface. He blinked in surprise when he found that his cheek was pressed against a very feminine chest.

"Ahh, Riley," a familiar voice gasped. "Glad you're awake...now could you..._pleeease _get off... Mommy...can't..._breath_..."

His blue eyes finally blinked open and widened in horror when he saw that the chest belonged to his mother who was staring back at him, her cheeks reddening while his weight was upon her.

"M-mom?"

He spastically pushed himself away from her to give them both some breathing room and heard the ripping sound again. He finally looked down on himself and gasped in horror.

"Aaah! My clothes!"

Riley scrambled to curl up and cover the parts of his body that were showing through the tatters of his too small shirt and pants. A humiliated blush grew on his face as he glanced frantically from his mother who was sitting next to him catching her breath and up towards the rest of the audience that he suddenly realized he had.

"Ben, Abigail, Sadusky... ...Pirate? What the... Why'm I... And the... Meh?"

Confusion and humiliation had his questions slurring into unintelligible words. He nearly jumped out of his barely clothed skin when an arm was suddenly draped over his shoulders.

"It's okay, Riley," his mother chuckled while she squeezed him ever so slightly in her one armed hug. "You're gonna be okay."

"B-but what..."

"Trust me, kiddo. You don't even wanna know."

* * *

_So I really really really love Disney World but I have no know how those tunnels work. I imagine they'd be pretty secure and you can't just like stumble into one :P_

_Only one chapter to go (I'm keeping this short and cryptic)! Thanks as always for the reviews everybody! They always make my day when I see them :)_


	7. The End

_Just a forewarning—this chapter was not intended as one of those cheesy "oh the whole damn thing was really just a dream..." I just thought it would be fun to do and sort of give some closure to little Riley, as well as kinda set up something else I've been working on._

**Chapter VII: The End**

_1988_

Riley forced his eyes open and for a moment he felt lost between his real world and the strange dream he'd just had. When he blinked lingering sleep from his eyes he found that he was staring up at a ceiling adorned with plastic stars whose collective glow was waning in the pre dawn light. A further glance around revealed a moderately messy room with a desk against one wall and a small toy chest against the other. The floor was littered with toys of all different kinds that he quickly recognized from having played with them what felt like days before.

He eventually concluded that he was definitely in his own bedroom, as his bed and all of his belongings were comfortably familiar, but he still felt very, very strange.

Riley laid there until the sun had fully risen and his mother came bustling in to wake him up for school like she did every other day. He shuffled his way into the kitchen and took a seat while she poured him his favorite breakfast cereal. Then she was off, darting up the tight staircase to her bedroom then down to the kitchen and back again as she rushed between getting herself and Riley ready for the new day.

She had turned off the coffee pot and was just about to hurry back to her room to finish her makeup while the liquid cooled when she noticed that Riley was just sitting there. She paused in her routine morning rush and watched him while he stared intensely at his uneaten cereal. She knew that look—her boy was deep in thought about something.

"What's the matter, kiddo?" she said as she returned to their small kitchen table. "There something, uh, funky in your cereal?"

He glanced up from his bowl sluggishly and blinked at her. He looked exhausted and pale with dark bags under his eyes, like he hadn't really slept well the night before. "What?"

She frowned as she took a seat next to him and gently put the back of her hand against his forehead. "You feelin' okay, Riley?"

He batted her hand away with a roll of his eyes. "I'm not _sick_," he insisted. "I just feel..._weird_."

She pulled back and gave him a funny look. "Oh yeah? Weird like how?"

"I dunno." He was quiet for a long, thoughtful moment before looking up at her with that annoyingly curious expression of his. "Mom, what are dreams exactly?"

"Dreams?" She blinked at the surprising question for a second before realization struck and the corners of her mouth turned into a sly grin. "So you had a dream, and because of it you feel…_weird_?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"Uh huh. Let me guess-was there a pretty lady in it?"

"Yeah!" Riley exclaimed.

His mother giggled a little behind her hand in response which only served to confuse him further. "I think you're too little to be having dreams about pretty ladies there, Riley."

"But there was a man, too. And you were in my dream, but I dreamed that you were old."

She wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Old? What, like thirty old or _old _old?"

Riley shrugged. "I dunno. Just old. But I was scared because I didn't know the other people but then you were there and everything was okay."

"Oh, well that's good."

"Yeah but it felt like I really did all the stuff that I did in my dream. We went on adventures and there were bad guys and we went to Disney World and stuff! It was sooo real."

"That's cool, kiddo," she said with a smile as she took down a mental note to try to take the kid on a much needed summer vacation. "What else did we do in your dream?"

He screwed his face up in thought before exclaiming, "treasures! The man said stuff about finding secret buried treasures!"

"'Treasurers'?" she gasped dramatically. "So did we fight _pirates_ in your dream?"

"We did!" he squealed as he practically jumped out of his seat with excitement. "So my dream was real? It was really real?"

"No, Riley," she said with a chuckle. "It's just a coincidence I guessed that we were fighting pirates in your dream."

"But where do dreams _come_ from?" he pouted.

"From right...about..._here_." She jabbed her pointer finger lightly against his forehead.

"But why?"

"Because, Riley," she explained. "When you sleep your brain thinks about a whole lot of stuff, like things you see and do and learn about in school, but it thinks about all these things at once and sometimes your brain gets all jumbled up and comes up with weird stuff. And then you dream the weird stuff."

"Really?"

She shrugged. "Something like that. Where do you think you got the pirate from?"

"I dunno."

"Remember when we watched that movie the other day? The one about the princess?"

"Uh huh..."

"The guy in the movie was a pirate. That's probably what you remembered and then your brain filled in all the rest. And do you know why you thought mommy was old?"

"Why?"

She fingered through a few strands of her dark hair and yanked one out for him to see. Instead of the dark, almost black brown color it was supposed to be it was a shiny gray.

"Because child and work stress is driving mommy slowly insane and causing her to get gross old people hair before she's even twenty-five. Remember when I told you that? How you drive me crazy sometimes?"

He sighed indifferently. "Yeah."

"See? That's how you came up with your weird dream."

"But what about those other people? The man and the lady? They said they were my friends, but they were old too."

"Did they look familiar?"

"I don't think so."

"They weren't from TV or our books or anything like that?"

Riley shook his head insistently. "No! I really really'd never seen them before!"

"Huh, that is weird."

"I guess I liked them though," Riley continued. "The pretty lady was really nice and she bought me presents, and the man saved me from the pirates!"

His mother pulled back and cocked an eyebrow at him. "Well should I be jealous of these dream people? They seem really _really_ cool. I wouldn't want them to be luring my Riley away from me with like adventures and presents and stuff."

"Mommm, the man and lady were _dream _people," he said matter-of-factly. "They're not _real_."

Darla gestured in over exaggerated relief. "Phew! That's good. I would hate to have weird dream people hanging around all the time." She suddenly grabbed Riley right out of his seat and hugged him tight while he squealed with delighted surprise. "I wanna keep my little Riley aaalll to myself."

She gave him a big, wet kiss on the cheek and he giggled in response. She smirked, triumphant that she had cured him of whatever dream related funk he'd been in just moments before. If only every other confusing or depressing situation he found himself in would be so easy to fix.

"Aah, Riley!" she suddenly exclaimed when she glanced at the clock on the wall. She set him down in his chair again and forced the spoon back into his hand. "Hurry and eat your cereal! You're gonna miss the bus!"

Riley slumped in his seat and she dashed away again to finish getting ready for work. The seven year old somewhat reluctantly shoved the cereal filled spoon into his now frowning mouth as he muttered, "I _hate_ the bus."

* * *

_Btw, gray hair in young people is caused by genetics not annoying children :)_

_Hey thanks so much everybody for reading my random little story! I know I've left it kinda unresolved as far as the Darla/Riley relationship goes-sorry 'bout that, but if I didn't keep this short I would never know where to end it-but I do intend on expanding said relationship through that series of one shots I mentioned in the Foreword of this story. So if people are interested I'll start that soon, and then see where things go from there! And thanks once again for all the wonderful reviews :)_


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